1. n. A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
2. n. A place used by another mammal, fish, amphibian or insect, for depositing eggs and hatching young.
3. n. A snug, comfortable, or cozy residence or job situation.
4. n. A retreat, or place of habitual resort.
5. n. A hideout for bad people to frequent or haunt; a den.
a nest of thieves
That nightclub is a nest of strange people!
6. n. A home that a child or young adult shares with a parent or guardian.
I am aspiring to leave the nest.
7. n. (cards) A fixed number of cards in some bidding games awarded to the highest bidder allowing him to exchange any or all with cards in his hand.
I was forced to change trumps when I found the ace, jack, and nine of diamonds in the nest.
8. n. (military) A fortified position for a weapon, e.g. a machine gun nest.
9. n. (computing) A structure consisting of nested structures, such as nested loops or nested subroutine calls.
10. n. A circular bed of pasta, rice, etc. to be topped or filled with other foods.
11. n. (geology) An aggregated mass of any ore or mineral, in an isolated state, within a rock.
12. n. A collection of boxes, cases, or the like, of graduated size, each put within the one next larger.
13. n. A compact group of pulleys, gears, springs, etc., working together or collectively.
14. v. (intransitive, of animals) To build or settle into a nest.
15. v. (intransitive) To settle into a home.
We loved the new house and were nesting there in two days!
16. v. (intransitive) To successively neatly fit inside another.
I bought a set of nesting mixing bowls for my mother.
17. v. To place in, or as if in, a nest.
18. v. To place one thing neatly inside another, and both inside yet another (and so on).
There would be much more room in the attic if you had nested all the empty boxes.
19. v. (intransitive) To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").
hotbed
hotbed
1. n. A low bed of earth covered with glass, and heated with rotting manure, used for the germination of seeds and the growth of tender plants, like a miniature hothouse.
2. n. (by extension) An environment that is ideal for the growth or development of something, especially of something undesirable.
3. n. An iron platform in a rolling mill, on which hot bars, rails, etc., are laid to cool.
1. n. A group of similar things, either growing together, or in a cluster or clump, usually fastened together.
a bunch of grapes; a bunch of bananas; a bunch of keys; a bunch of yobs on a street corner
2. n. (cycling) The peloton; the main group of riders formed during a race.
3. n. An informal body of friends.
He still hangs out with the same bunch.
4. n. (US, informal) A considerable amount.
a bunch of trouble
5. n. (informal) An unmentioned amount; a number.
A bunch of them went down to the field.
6. n. (forestry) A group of logs tied together for skidding.
7. n. (geology, mining) An unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.
8. n. (textiles) The reserve yarn on the filling bobbin to allow continuous weaving between the time of indication from the midget feeler until a new bobbin is put in the shuttle.
9. n. An unfinished cigar, before the wrapper leaf is added.
Two to four filler leaves are laid end to end and rolled into the two halves of the binder leaves, making up what is called the bunch.
10. n. A protuberance; a hunch; a knob or lump; a hump.
11. v. To gather into a bunch.
12. v. To gather fabric into folds.
13. v. (intransitive) To form a bunch.
14. v. (intransitive) To be gathered together in folds
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